Jets with projected $30 million in cap space

Erik Manassy

01/12/2014

Entering his second year as the general manager of the New York Jets, John Idzik will have plenty of green to help retool Gang Green's roster this offseason. Find out what moves the front office will attempt to make in 2014.

This offseason the New York Jets are going to go shopping to improve this team. With an 8-8 season in 2013, the team can only improve by filling in some obvious holes.

The Jets need to find improvements with the wide receivers, tight ends, the secondary and some offensiveline tweaks.

Releasing Mark Sanchez, Antonio Cromartie and Santonio Holmes would save the Jets a staggering $26.05 million in cap space, and New York is projected to have a little over $30 million in cap space to spend. This will go towards signing their rookies, free agents they may resign or bring in.

Depending on who Gang Green's drafts and/or signs on the open market, I'd say that No. 1 and No. 2 priorities are no-brainers. Jeff Cumberland in my opinion is too inconsistent, Calvin Pace was a nice surprise this year, but his clock is going to run out. I do like Willie Colon if we can't find an improvement to bring in, and the rest of the list pretty much isn't a priority.
I know GM John Idzik's "thing", at least this past year, is to bring in guys coming off major injuries to see if they can squeeze a couple more big plays out of them. Ed Reed, Willie Colon and Kellen Winslow Jr were perfect examples of this. The Vladimir Ducasse experiment should be over. Let's call it what it is, a bust, and move on finally.
Antonio Cromartie told his teammates that he believes that the Jets are going to release him. That seems obvious to everyone, but the cornerback told the media that he would love to retire a Jet. He stated that he is going to test the market, and see if there are no takers, maybe the Jets will bring him in at a major discount. My concern is his injured hip combined with his age. Cromartie showed that he wasn't the player from last year, but when healthy, he's as gifted an athlete you will see in the NFL.